Saturday, April 8, 2017

People
often ask me how many hours a week you can work for Leapforce; currently you
are limited to 40 hours a week, but soon that will be changing. A new policy has just been announced that
limits hours to 26 per week. Starting
June 1, 2017 Yukon raters in the US will be restricted to working no more than
26 hours per week. This will disappoint
many people hoping to make Leapforce a full time job. I believe it is probably difficult to
consistently get 40 hours per week every week anyway, but I’m sure some people
come close to that. Leapforce workers
who consistently worked more than 26 hours per week will now have to find other
work to supplement their income.

If
you work for Leapforce from a country other than the US your rules may be
different, based on the labor laws in your country, so this policy change will
probably not affect you.

Though
this policy change is bad news for many people, it could be good for people
looking for part time income that aren’t already working for Leapforce. I
assume that Leapforce will be hiring more raters because they will have to
cover the work that others will soon be restricted from doing. For better or worse, everyone needs to be
aware of the policy change and take that into account in their financial
planning.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Leapforce
is a good way to make money working from home, it can be a good source of
income for retirees and people with a full-time job who want to make extra
money. Leapforce should be thought of as
part time, the availability of work can be inconsistent at times, those just
starting with Leapforce will not be given as much work as experienced agents,
and even experienced agents may not always be assigned work amounting to 40
hours per week.

What is required to work for
Leapforce?

You must
have a computer with internet access, Wi-Fi in your home is best, and you must
have a smartphone. Most of your work
will be done using the smartphone. If
your eyesight is not the best, it’s good to have a large screen, some of the text
you will be reading can be very small.
You need to know how to manipulate the screen to enlarge the text and
scroll around. Knowing how to install
and use apps is also useful.

Before
you are accepted as a Leapforce agent you will have to read and understand the
guidelines they will send you. Then you
will have to pass an exam which includes true/false questions and a practical
section that simulate the tasks you will be doing when you are hired. For more information see my article on taking the exam, keep in mind that the exam process changes and some aspects of the
exam may be different from what I wrote then.

What challenges might seniors have
while doing Leapforce evaluation tasks?

I am 62
as of this writing so I understand some of the challenges of seniors. Reading small print on smartphones can be
challenging. If you aren’t accustomed to
working with smartphones, it can take some getting used to. Before you apply with Leapforce, practice
searching the internet on your phone.
Download a couple of apps, like Yelp or YouTube, and try using them. Familiarize yourself with the functions of
your phone, how to magnify what’s on the screen, how to scroll horizontally and
vertically, and change the volume of the media playback.

The job
involves lots of time sitting at the computer.
If you have a problem sitting in one place for a long period of time,
you can break up your work sessions.
Leapforce is very flexible about your hours, both how many you work and
when you work, so you can do several one-hour sessions instead of one long
session if you prefer.

The types of sites you will visit may or may not be a challenge for you. You can tell Leapforce that you don’t want to
visit sites with Adult content (porn), although some will accidentally get
through to you, but you can refuse the task if that happens. However they don’t classify vulgar rap music
as adult content, which I’ve suggested to them that they should, some rap is
not vulgar or obscene but some is and if you haven’t heard it before it can be
shocking. You will also visit more sites
about Pokemon than you could imagine existed.
You will also encounter a lot of other video game sites and incredibly
pointless YouTube channels and twitter feeds. Through all of that, though, you
will learn a lot about pop culture, gain some conversation starters and be able
to talk to your grand kids about Pokemon.

Even if
you are struggling to find any redeeming value to some of the websites you
visit, you have to keep in mind that your job is to rate the value of the
webpage based on what a “typical” user who typed in that query wants to see or
learn about.

Conclusion

With the
caveats mentioned above, working for Leapforce and be a great second job or
supplement to your income at any age. If
you think you are interested in becoming a Leapforce agent take a look at my
other articles to learn more:

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

I work for Leapforce
evaluating webpages and search engine results. Google uses the data from evaluators
like me to rate webpage quality. The
quality of your website affects where it shows up in the search engine results,
so it affects the traffic to your site. While doing my job I find the same
mistakes over and over on the websites I visit.
Here is some advice for website creators.

INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS

If your website is for
a business with a physical location that you want people to visit you must
include your full address. I’m
continually amazed at how many websites just say things like “…on North High
Street” or “…in the Garment District” and nothing else. Some websites have the address but it’s not
prominently displayed, they make the user search for it. You should never make important information
like that hard to find. When someone
searches for your site they want quick easy answers to their questions. If you
want someone who is not familiar with your neighborhood to visit they need to
know your full address. The addition of
a map and directions will give your website a better ranking in Google and you
will also be rewarded with more visitors to your business.

INCLUDE INFORMATION ABOUT WHO PROVIDES CONTENT

Google wants to know
that you have some authority to write what you are writing about. If you have no information about yourself or
the people contributing content to your page Google may become suspicious. If you want a high ranking in Google you
should include a little bio about each of the contributors to the site giving
the reader some reason to believe your contributors know what they are writing
about.

DON’T GET TOO CREATIVE WITH COLORS AND FONTS

Unless you only want young
people to read your site do NOT use black with white font on your website. Worse
than that is black background with a gray font.
People older than 30 have a hard time reading it, they won’t bother and
will leave your site for another. I recently
saw a site that had a dark reddish brown background with royal blue font, it
was like trying to read while on LSD. If
you want people to read and spend time on your site it should be easy on the
eyes. The best combinations are like
what humans are used to reading – a light background with a dark font. You can play with colors but keep it a dark
font on light background and your readers will be happy.

USE GOOD GRAMMAR AND CHECK YOUR SPELLING

Yes, Google cares
about grammar and spelling. If your site
is poorly written, Google assumes that the content on the site isn’t
trustworthy, that the content was just thrown on the page as a filler and the only
purpose of the site is to have a place for ads.
If you aren’t a good writer find an editor to check your work before you
post it.

CONCLUSION

Google is looking for
websites that provide helpful, trustworthy information to people; that
information should also be easy to find and read. The better your website is at meeting these
criterial the higher your ranking in Google will be. I hope this helps you make better decisions
about how to structure your website.

About Me

I'm a library paraprofessional with a Master's Degree in Psychology, researcher, blogger and part-time webpreneur. Working for state government is not as secure as it used to be, so supplemental income is needed. I'm investigating and trying out a number of work-at-home ideas that I'll be discussing in Leaving Low Wages. Because we get stuck from time to time, I've started Action Does It so we can all learn some motivational techniques together.
Your comments are welcome, the more people we have contributing ideas the smarter we all will be.